2023-10-21 07:45:00
“Purple” is no longer just a color, it is now also the beginning of a treasure. This word is the first that researchers managed to decipher in a papyrus reputed to be illegible because it was burned by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, as the initiators of the Project Vesuvius Challenge.
Soon, they promise, entire sentences will be seen escaping from charred scrolls, fragments of hitherto unknown ancient writings that we hope to discover, thanks to artificial intelligence and the obstinacy of several teams.
These papyri might have been forgotten forever… When the volcano overlooking the Bay of Naples in Italy awoke, almost 2,000 years ago, burning gases and rocks buried the famous city of Pompeii, but also the neighboring village of Herculaneum. Not spared was a luxurious Roman villa which belonged to a high-ranking man, perhaps the father-in-law of Julius Caesar. His library contained hundreds of scrolls which were only rediscovered in 1750 by a farmer. A good number were destroyed on the altar of curiosity and impatience, others (around 600) waited for progress to make them speak.
Scrolls offered to Napoleon
In 2015, a researcher at the University of Kentucky, Brent Seales, managed to virtually unroll an ancient Hebrew parchment using X-rays, which then allowed it to be decoded. Last March, this specialist in artificial intelligence challenged the most resourceful to tackle the Herculaneum papyri, kept at the Institut de France in Paris. “The scrolls were in France because they had been offered to Napoleon by Ferdinand, son of Charles III and king of Naples and Sicily,” emphasizes Brent Seales.
A whole community then sets in motion to first detect ink on several rollers, then letters. Two computer science students independently manage to reveal the same word, “purple,” in one of the papyri. They each receive a prize for this feat (40,000 dollars for the first, 10,000 dollars for the second, or approximately 38,000 and 9,500 euros respectively).
The first word deciphered. Vesuvius Challenge
“The word purple might refer to the purple dye used to make Roman robes, signifying wealth and status. Until the context becomes clearer, we cannot be sure what this really is. But it’s a very intriguing first word! » enthuses Brent Seales. Several lines have since been revealed.
A lost literary heritage, soon to be found?
The ultimate challenge is to decipher four different passages containing at least 140 characters by December 31. The prize is $700,000 (around 660,000 euros), financed by investors from Silicon Valley! “We do not expect competitors to fail in the challenge, and the first prize letters are confirmation that we are on the right track. We will certainly give the necessary time to see a winner. It will be an exciting moment in world history when that happens,” said Brent Seales.
Already in 2015, CNRS researchers had succeeded in making invisible letters visible. Why are these papyri considered so precious? Paradoxically, what burned these writings, the eruption of Vesuvius, is also what preserved them, even though they would have disappeared if they had been abandoned in the open air. According to the Vesuvius Challenge website, “if they were read, they would more than double the body of literature dating from Antiquity that we have.”
“Most researchers estimate that more than 90% of the material from this era is lost,” says Brent Seales. What forgotten literary monuments are hidden in these charred scrolls? To be continued!
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